Secular Coalition for America Points to $30 Million in Federal Tax Money Earmarked for Religious Activities

The Secular Student Alliance is a founding member of the Secular Coalition for America, the national lobby for atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheistic Americans. During the appropriations process for fiscal year 2008, Congress passed over 140 earmarks totaling almost $30 million in public funding for overtly religious activities. Americans' tax dollars are already supporting

• training programs for evangelical lay ministers
• homeless shelters that seek to convert clients to Christianity
• colleges whose students must believe in biblical inerrancy

... and the list continues. On April 2nd the Secular Coalition for America delivered letters to all 107 Congress members on its database of constitutionally suspect earmarks, and the Coalition's findings have been provided to those member organizations that engage in litigation (the American Humanist Association and the Freedom From Religion Foundation).